Monday, April 30, 2012

The final trailer for The Dark Knight Rises finally sells me. I'm officially excited again. It feels good to be back on board.

I'm frankly a little disappointed that Warner Bros. didn't have the courage to just wait a few days and debut this thing in theaters attached to The Avengers.  This is a big-scale trailer and deserves to be seen in theaters before dissecting it on a computer-screen.  Unless they were trying to slightly chip away at The Avengers's opening weekend (re - repeat viewings from those who've attended press/preview screenings), I really don't know why they chickened out at the last minute.  But having said that, this is a pretty terrific trailer.  Yes, much of the material in the first 2/3 is merely extended glimpses of what we've seen before, but this looks like exactly what it needs to be: an emotionally-powerful, socially-relevant action-drama that happens to take place within the world of Batman.  The clip uses the slow rising towards the familiar Batman Begins theme to literally raise goose-bumps.  Bane looks more imposing in action, Hathaway's Catwoman feels surprisingly appropriate and at home in Nolan's Gotham, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems to be filling the role of the 'hope' that Jim Gordon has apparently lost (his lack of screentime here makes me all-the-more concerned that he dies in the first act, which in-turn spurs Bruce out of retirement).  Kudos to Warner and Nolan for crafting three trailers that, like The Dark Knight four years ago, only reveal the barest bits of plot and story.  I don't expect this to be a game-changer like The Dark Knight, and I don't expect it to appeal to the inner-Bat geek in me as much as the last iconic Batman/Gordon vs. The Joker epic did.  But there now seems little doubt that The Dark Knight Rises should at least be a damn-good motion picture and a hell of a series finale.  This one drops July 20th.  As always, we'll see, but I'm back on the 'happy train'.

Scott Mendelson 

4 comments:

Jeremy Flores said...

Do you think Batman dies in this film?

Liam_Ho said...

The great thing about this trailer is that I still have no idea how Seline Kyle and Miranda Tate fit into the overall narrative along with Bane.

Don't mean to nitpick Scott but which three are you referring to as "three solid trailers" because I remember you disliking the teaser back in July.

Scott Mendelson said...

You are correct and I have removed the offending word. I still dislike the fanmade-feeling teaser, but I guess I got caught up in the genuine excitement from this new trailer.

Scott Mendelson said...

At this point, with two years of speculation, I think it'd be the more shocking move *not* to kill off Bruce Wayne. But in the end, it's not about 'balls'. Nolan has permission from Warner Bros. to end his story however he sees fit and whatever narrative choice he makes is merely whatever narrative choice he makes.

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